Great Composer Quiz – May 18, 2020
This time, it’s a Quiz about leaving well enough alone. This Great Composer once wrote a ballet for a Broadway show. Our Great Composer did not attend the premiere, but afterward the producer of the show sent him a telegram which read: Ballet great success but if you would allow violin to play pas de deux instead of trumpet it would be a triumph. Our Great Composer wired back, “Satisfied with great success.” So who was this Broadway neophyte, this Great Composer?
Answer
Time’s up, pencils down. The Great Composer who wrote ballet music for The Seven Lively Arts, a show produced by Billy Rose, and after Rose wrote to him asking that the pas de deux be moved from trumpet to violin, he said no with a famous wise crack. The answer is Igor Stravinsky.